Alright, it might not look like I have new shoes, but I do. They are the same steele grey PJs as before, but now in size 12 instead of 11.5. Ever since removing my orthotics I’ve realized I need bigger shoes. I originally thought 11.5 would be enough, but nope. So I hit 303 and got some PJs in the same color as to not look like a total poser with new stuff again. They are way more comfy, maybe even feel a bit too big, but we’ll see. I skated for about an hour. My board felt tiny with the bigger shoes and I felt pretty clumsy. It took a few tries to land a kickflip. I really didn’t skate good, but at one point I did a line of fakie f/s flip, nollie tre then heelflip. That was my saving grace as I laid into treflips after that and came up empty handed. Well, not totally, my hands did keep me afloat on one over 60 make. I hucked some switch f/s flips again and got remotely close. Close to nollie varial flip, not close to nollie flips and struggled with fakie bigflips again. Doh.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

Met up with Chad at the Broomfield park around 9:30 am. I was feeling a little better then yesterday, meaning I could squat a little at least. Warming up was ok. Quartapotty tricks, blue ledge, parking block. Chad was pretty tired from his baby keeping him up and had a sore ankle. I had some ok runs going like switch 180 into the bank, crooks the ledge, front rock the brick qp then slappy crooks the parking block. Chad was almost doing front nosegrinds on the black ledge, front tails on the blue ledge. Chad left and I kept skating as Rob was on the way. I got a few tricks like front 50 shove on the black ledge, haflcab noseslide, more basic tricks. Got a line of kickflip on the hump, back 180 into the bank, halfcab noseslide. Rob showed. He manualled the top of the park quickly, crooks the ledge, boardslides, tailblocks the hump. I got a really, really bad back 50 on the black ledge, a little line of switch noseslide then the fakie triple rock on the wedge. I guess that’s pretty much it, seems like more happened, but I’m struggling to remember right now.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)

I had done a bunch of lunges at work the day before and was feeling it. I could barely squat at all. I started doing rock ‘n rolls and stuff on the “qp” part of it. Then on the ledge it was tough to even do a slappy crooks at the top of the ledge. I would eventually loosen up a little though. Somehow flip tricks didn’t hurt too much. I did a couple lines starting with slappy crooks then kickflip to fakie or kickflip over the “hip”. Then took a few tries to get noseslides and got nollie and regular back 360s over the “hip”. Did a few of the worst/slowest back 50s the ledge has ever seen. Then I hucked back 360 kickflip over the hip for awhile. Like 10th try I did one. It amazed me. It felt a little pivoty, but pretty much perfect. I of course tried to film it, but the phone overheated before I landed it. I might put that one on the stubborns trick list. Going back up I tried a lot of front crooks. They felt good, but that ledge needed wax and I would stick. Got close to pulling in a few though. I added a really bad cab over the hip to my collection of tricks over the hip. Then it was time to go pick up India at the mall. I drove to the wrong mall to pick her up, but you get the point.

(setup null riley persing 8.125 deck, venture 5.2 v-hollow lows, thunder bushings, 3 washers inside each wheel, 51mm STF V1, new balance numeric pj 533 steel/gum)